


One Man War

by DizzyDrea



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Developing Friendships, Gen, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-04-01
Packaged: 2019-12-30 17:24:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18319868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DizzyDrea/pseuds/DizzyDrea
Summary: Tony Stark decided to give talking Steve Rogers out of going to SHIELD just one more try.





	One Man War

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prompt response for the Rough Trade One Sentence challenge. To read the other responses, [click here](http://www.roughtrade.org/the-workshop/topic/prompt-1-tony-stark-steve-rogers/). 
> 
> Disclaimer: Captain America and The Avengers and all its particulars are the property of Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Studios, Joss Whedon, The Russo Brothers and a lot of other people who arenít me. I am doing this for fun and for practice. Mostly for fun.

~o~

Tony Stark was in his private lab, pieces of the Iron Man suit strewn all over the workstations as he tried to put it back together after the damage done during the Chitauri invasion—what the news shows were now calling the Battle of Manhattan. AC/DC was blasting from the speakers, but he barely payed it any attention as his fingers danced along the more damaged parts of the suit. 

It was busy work, something he could do without much thought, but it gave his hands something to do while he pondered his most recent problem: what to do about Steve Rogers. 

It said something about what his life had become that he was worried about someone else besides himself or Pepper, and yet here he was. Rogers had announced shortly before they were to send Thor and Loki back to Asgard that he'd been offered a position with SHIELD. Tony had given him chapter and verse on why that was a bad idea but it seemed that Spangles wasn't interested in hearing reason.

It grated on Tony that he couldn't figure out what was behind this sudden desire to join an agency he knew nothing about, to fight in wars he was only barely aware of. Rogers had insisted he knew what he was doing and had stubbornly clung to that belief. 

Tony found it irritating that the history books never talked about how hard-headed and intractable the man was. He figured he had one last shot at talking him out of it before the guy hared off to parts unknown. He just had to figure out the right angle.

Just then, the music cut off and the door to his lab slid open, revealing the frowning face of his girlfriend.

"Are you going to hide in here all day?" she asked, one eyebrow raised.

Tony winced. That was precisely his plan, but he wasn't sure he wanted to admit that to her. 

"Natasha was looking for you," she said when it became apparent that he wasn't going to answer. 

"And what did the uber-spy want?" Tony asked. He never took his eyes off the gauntlet he was trying to repair.

"Just to say thanks for putting her and Barton up for the last few days," Pepper said. "They're headed back to SHIELD HQ, and apparently they're taking Captain Rogers with them. Did you know about that?"

"I'd heard," Tony said.

"And did you try to talk him out of it?"

Tony glanced over to find her leaning against the far workbench, arms crossed, still with the eyebrow raised.

"I talked," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "Not that he listened."

"And I'm sure you were about as subtle as a heart attack when you did it," she said. She rolled her eyes. "You do realize they're trying to take advantage of him, right? I doubt he's in a fit state to do much of anything, not that they seem to care."

"Look, Pep," Tony said. He straightened up, bracing his hands on the workbench. "Rogers is a grown man. He doesn't need me or anyone else telling him what to do. He's just as stubborn as the old man said he was. I'm not going to waste my time talking to a brick wall. If he wants to let Fury throw him at every war zone on SHIELD's radar, who am I to interfere?"

"I'm glad someone realizes that."

Tony and Pepper looked over to find the object of their conversation standing in the doorway of the lab. Rogers had his arms crossed, his face set in that judgy way only he could pull off.

"You asked me to tell you when I was ready to leave," he said as he crossed the threshold into the lab. He nodded Pepper's way. "Ma'am."

"Captain," Pepper said. She glanced between the two men, a frown creasing her brow. Finally, she gave a sigh. She pushed off the workbench and turned to go, patting Rogers on the arm as she passed. "Just don't damage each other. Blood is surprisingly difficult to get out of the paint on the walls."

"Yes, ma'am," Rogers said, ducking his head a little as a blush stole across his cheeks. 

Pepper sighed again, throwing one last long-suffering look at Tony. She pointed a finger at him. "Behave."

Tony raised his hands in mock-surrender. "My hand to Thor."

Pepper snorted a laugh as she walked out of the room.

The two men stared at each other as silence descended on the room. Tony was loathe to break the stalemate, but someone had to be the bigger man, and lord knew Tony Stark's ego was the biggest in any room he entered.

Pressing his fingers to the bridge of his nose, he took a deep breath, looked Rogers in the eye and gave it one more shot.

"Can I ask you something?"

Rogers raised an eyebrow. 

"Why do it?" Tony asked, point blank. He figured it was the only way to get a straight answer out of the other man.

"Why join SHIELD?" Rogers asked. "Why not? I'm a one-man war, Stark. I liberated the Howling Commandos by myself. Most of the time, I _was_ the frontal assault in our battle plans. The history books dressed me up in red, white and blue, but the truth is that I'm a soldier to my very bones. This is what I was made for. It's what I'm good at, so why shouldn't I do it?"

Tony narrowed his eyes. "You weren't always a soldier, Rogers. There was a time—before Erskine used the serum to juice up your genetics, before you'd even heard of Project Rebirth—when you were the farthest thing from a soldier."

"And I still tried everything I could to become one," Rogers said. He sighed, hitching his hands on his hips. "I may not understand a lot about this modern world, but I do understand that you need people like me to fight the battles that you can't fight."

"Oh, I do just fine fighting my own battles," Tony said, a laconic grin spreading over his face. He waved his hands around the room, indicating the mess of parts and equipment spread all over every available surface. "Matter of fact, that's what started this whole thing in the first place: me, not waiting for anyone to come bail me out. I fought my way out of a terrorist camp, and then I went back and blew the thing to kingdom come, just to be sure they couldn't do it again."

"Stark," Rogers said, rubbing a hand over his forehead. "Why does this matter to you, anyway? We've been going around in circles over this for days."

"You matter," Tony shot back. "You mattered to Dear Old Dad, anyway. You know, I always felt like maybe he wished you were his kid. Not me."

"Tony, I—"

"Oh relax," Tony said, waving off the kicked-puppy look on Rogers' face. "I may be fucked up, but I'm not an idiot. Dad liked you, considered you one of his. That's why he spent so many years and so much money searching for you. He felt like you deserved a proper burial, for all that you sacrificed during the war. Up to and including your life."

"So, what?" Rogers asked. "That means you have some sort of claim on me? That gives you the right to question my choices?"

"You know, believe it or not, you and I are a lot alike," Tony said, instead of rising to the bait. Rogers scoffed, but Tony just waved him off. "We're both single-minded. Stubborn. We both like to be right."

"You and I are nothing alike," Rogers said. "You're an arrogant glory-hound. You stood up in front of a room full of reporters and admitted that you're Iron Man."

"Yes, I'm Iron Man," Tony said. He pointed at the arc reactor in his chest. "I can't run away from that, and I wouldn't if I could. But I’m not just Iron Man. I'm Tony Stark, for better or worse. I'm the guy that goes on a three-day science bender before someone who cares about me can pull me out of the lab and force food and sleep on me. I'm the guy that like likes wine, women and song. Probably too much, and not necessarily in that order. Billionaire, genius, playboy, philanthropist, remember?"

Rogers pursed his lips, a frown settling on his face. Tony took it for permission and kept talking. "Who is Steve Rogers? Not Captain America, but you. Steve Rogers. Who are you when you're not wearing the Stars and Stripes? Do you even know?"

"I used to know," Rogers said quietly. "Back before Rebirth, I used to be a scrawny, asthmatic kid who never met a fight he didn't want to pick. But I'm not that kid anymore. Honestly, I'm not sure I ever was. I didn't have that luxury, after my mom died."

"Don't you think you owe it to yourself to find out?" Tony asked, his tone subdued. "Before you go running off to fight a war that you don't really understand—that you don't have a personal stake in—don't you think you should know who you really are? What matters to you? The you of today, not the one from the 1940s."

"How did you learn all of this?" Rogers asked, instead of answering Tony's question. Tony was kind of proud—in a really disturbing way—that Rogers was just as good at deflection as Tony was.

"I learned it the hard way," Tony said. "I learned it by practically burning myself out. I learned it by becoming someone I never thought I could be. I haven't given up anything to become Iron Man. I'm still the same asshole I always was. But now I know that there are things out there that are bigger than me. And that I have a duty to everyone I care about to protect them. But I don't let anyone dictate to me what matters, what I care about. The only person who gets to make that choice is me."

"And what would I do, if I wasn't working for SHIELD?" Rogers asked.

"Take a vacation," Tony shot back. "Take up knitting or kickboxing or—"

"Art," Rogers said, cutting Tony off before he could really get going. "Before Rebirth, I used to draw. Sketch. It was… a way to pass the time. I couldn’t do a whole lot, with the asthma, so I used to draw whatever I could see out my window. My teachers used to say I was pretty good."

"There you go," Tony said. He paused, debating whether or not to make the offer. In the end, he decided to just do it. Rogers could turn him down, but at least he'd have the option. "You know you're welcome to stay here. Bruce has already camped out in a lab downstairs. I've got plenty of room."

"And more importantly, it's as far away from SHIELD and Fury as I can get, right?"

Tony flashed a grin. "Screwing Fury over is just a bonus."

Rogers shook his head, but Tony could see the smile lingering around his mouth. "Okay, Stark. You win."

Tony grinned, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

"Now that that's settled, let's go pick out a suite for you," he said. He crossed the room and slapped Steve on the shoulder. " _This_ is gonna be fun."

He caught Rogers' eye-roll out of the corner of his eye, but didn't give it another thought. Until he could figure out what was going on with Fury's Band of Merry Spies—and he knew there was something going on there; he just hadn't figured out what yet—he wasn't going to let Fury have anyone Tony cared about. 

And if it saved Rogers' life, so much the better. Never let it be said that Tony Stark wasn't the philanthropist he always claimed to be.

~Finis


End file.
